For decades, the term jukebox was synonymous with a housing for a phonograph player and a collection of musical recordings stored in the housing as a plurality of records. These jukeboxes were usually large and were mainly located in establishments like bars and restaurants. Eventually, the records in jukeboxes were replaced with compact discs (CDs). Although compact discs increased the sound quality of conventional jukeboxes, routinely updating conventional jukeboxes was a lengthy and cumbersome task.
Updating conventional jukeboxes required a significant investment of time and money. Routemen were required to travel to each jukebox location to replace outdated recordings with up-to-date CDs or records. A new physical copy of each disc was needed for every location and many unneeded copies of the outdated recordings remained after removal from the jukebox. New ways to store and update musical recordings on jukeboxes were needed to eliminate or reduce this laborious and expensive update procedure.
The influx of digital music provided an opportunity to change the design and operation of conventional jukeboxes. As suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,302, conventional jukeboxes could be replaced with a network of computer jukeboxes capable of storing digital music in memory and updating the music contained on the jukebox over a network connection. Computer jukeboxes reduced the necessity of routemen to update jukeboxes manually. The computer jukeboxes provided many advantages beyond the saved expense in updating. A plurality of jukeboxes could now be controlled via a central management center, allowing tasks such as royalty accounting to be performed centrally. Digital music has become increasingly popular, and compression technologies decreased the necessary file size, allowing any computer system with speakers to become a jukebox. A large market was created for digital jukeboxes, including personal jukeboxes in homes (e.g., home computers using a variety of online music delivery services).
With most digital jukebox systems, a security system is needed to ensure that the user and/or owner of the jukebox is authorized to use the jukebox system. Security systems may require the owner, operator, or user of a digital or personal jukebox to register a “user name” and a “password” with a central computer within the central jukebox system. In the event a user/owner wishes to access his account to, for example, download content or make changes to the user/owner account, the central computer can require the user to provide the previously registered user name and associated password indicating that the user/owner is authorized to access the account.
However, in certain jukebox systems, various components of the system may be removed or replaced in order to maintain the system. For example, a local hard drive might be exchanged or replaced to provide additional local music content and/or updated software. The identification numbers associated with components can be used as unique identifiers to register the jukebox with the central computer. In such systems a user name and password may not be sufficient to authenticate the jukebox. Software or music files requiring appropriate licenses prior to use may be loaded into the memory of a computer jukebox and require authentication. Therefore, the user is required to call a service technician to manually update the registration information for the jukebox before the component parts or software can be used as desired. Manually updating the registration for a jukebox on a jukebox network can be inconvenient. For example, a large number of staff may be required to respond to changes in registration for jukeboxes on the network. Furthermore, manually changing the registration by calling a service technician may be time consuming—especially if a user/owner is responsible for a large number of jukeboxes on a network.
Accordingly, there is a desire for an efficient system and method for auto registration of a networked jukebox.